The covers of some of the most iconic books of our childhoods have been reimagined with a dark environmental bent.
Noticed everything is a bit rubbish these days? Stuff is getting more expensive to buy, and we soon won’t be able to afford ‘owt anyway, once AI steals our jobs.
And guess what? The tech bros are all too keen on chewing up the environment to power that AI, further ramping up the fuelling of climate change.
It’s in this climate that 99Designs has commissioned a reworking of the book covers of some classic children’s texts.
Are they on-the-nose? Absolutely. But if you’re ready for your daily dose of depression, let’s take a closer look.
Winnie-the-Pooh’s cover becomes the scene of a cut-down tree, sacrificed to make way for power lines, while smog winds up into the sky from a factory in the distance.
This one is by a designer called SilentWhisper, who says it plays on the theme of deforestation.
“I wanted to show in my illustration that almost no one is bothered when more trees are cut down in their park for another electric pole or parking lot for cars,” they say.
“But as soon as we add them to the plot of a classic fairy tale, it immediately catches our eye. It no longer seems like ‘just another tree being cut down’ to us. It destroys the character’s original world.”
Next up, The Wind in the Willows’s peaceful vision of the English countryside becomes a river of toxic sludge, the characters wearing gas masks as they walk along its banks.
Designer Micromegas says it’s inspired by MAD Magazine comics and their experiences watching the cartoon as children.
“I remember the cartoon version of The Wind in the Willows. It was one of my and my cousin’s favourite cartoons when we were little. So, it would be only fair to save both this story and its nature for the next generations as well.”
The new take on The Jungle Book shows, well, a scene with no jungle at all — the trees, bar a few naked-looking hold-outs, cut down — made by designer Miniverso.
Flupito’s Mr. Men design is a little different, as it’s a cover for a book that doesn’t exist, Mr. Smog.
And finally, Dr. Seuss gets the spotlight with a grim adaptation of the One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish learning book for young children.
Steve Hai’s cover design highlights the effect of climate change on sea life. He lives on Australia’s western coast, which no doubt puts this issue at the front of mind more than it would for the average Londoner.
"By reimagining the children’s stories we all grew up with through a climate lens, they’ve created something that feels both familiar and urgent, demonstrating how effective design can be at driving important conversations," says 99Designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn.
99designs is a marketing-based sister company of Vistaprint that hooks up small businesses and other companies with graphic designers.
But, needless to say, we won't see these covers adorning versions of the actual books sold on Amazon.
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